To Our Readers

June 27, 2004

Last week was not the state's proudest. After 365 years, a Connecticut governor was forced to resign, breaking that steady habit of changing governors on Election Day. The forced resignation of the state's 86th governor has been an odd sort of statewide out-of-body experience, a gee-what's-it-like-to- come-from-Rhode-Island- or-New-Jersey type of thing. It's all a matter of perspective at this point, isn't it? Newport, Newark, Newington ... we're all the same.

To try to get some perspective on this complicated man who ran the state for nine years, we wanted to find out about former governors who, perhaps unknown to many of us, may have defied rules or broken molds. We called Loomis Chaffee history teacher Mark Williams to ask if he could identify such an official. ``Colorful governors?'' he asked. ``This is Connecticut.''

And in fact, just look at those 72 seemingly staid, largely bearded, bewigged white guys on the Northeast cover (except for Ella Grasso, of course, who was staid once, we hear, for 12 seconds in 1977).

But it's all a matter of perspective. Look at Row 6, Column 1 and meet Morgan G. Bulkeley, governor from 1889 through 1893. The Hartford Republican was locked out of his office at the Capitol by a Democratic legislature and ended up using a crowbar to pry open his door. He was also the first president of baseball's National League.

But what we mainly hope to do this week is to offer you different perspectives on John G. Rowland, and to present, in part, more nuanced views of the many issues that have been chewed over in discussions and arguments among residents these past difficult weeks and months.

Staff writer Deborah Petersen Swift canoed Bantam Lake at the time of the governor's resignation speech, seeking some kind of revelatory pairing of players and scenes: the bass in Bantam Lake vs. the hordes in Hartford. She may have found it. We asked ethicist Michael Rion to discuss some of the key issues over which the governor stumbled so badly. Dean Pagani, the governor's longtime spokesman, had a unique view of John Rowland, one that seems important to hear.

Our columnists Colin McEnroe and Kevin Rennie, cartoonist Wes Rand and poet laureate Marilyn Nelson, have their own kinds of insight, of course. And, for a little extra perspective, we turn to some famous and infamous words from history and literature, including, naturally, and at last, Samuel Clemens.